Summary of the region

The Autonomous Community of Navarre is located in the North of Spain, at the western end of the Pyrenees. Navarre is a community that has strong thermal and rainfall contrasts due to its climatic diversity. Three biogeographical areas (Alpinapirenaica, Atlantic and Mediterranean) and different climates (Oceanic, continental, Mediterranean and mountain) converge in Navarra. These contrasts reach their maximum expression on both sides of the Cantabrian-Mediterranean water divide, a line of peaks that separates the north of Navarre from the Central Zone and Ribera, which also means a separation between areas with very different climates. The regionalised climate scenarios point to a clear increase in average temperatures, number of heat waves, hot days and nights and also a decrease in the number of days of frost, as well as a "Mediterraneanisation" of the rainfall regime (greater variability in the temporal distribution and types of rain).

Navarre is committed to sustainability and the fight against climate change, in the direction of a new socio-economic and energy model with a low-carbon economy adapted to the effects of climate, in order to become a benchmark for sustainable development, with an environmentally responsible and efficient territory in the use of resources, with a balance between people, their activity and the environment in which they live, in line with the Intelligent Specialisation Strategy and the social policies of the Government of Navarre. All this is directly related to the United Nations Agenda 2030 (ODS).

Measures for adaptation to climate change

The Government of Navarra, aware of the need to implement a comprehensive and transversal strategy in Navarra to tackle the challenge of climate change from a local perspective, has drawn up the Climate Change Roadmap-KLINA, approved in January 2018, taking on board the international objectives of the European Union Strategy, the Paris Agreement and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (ODS). The Government of Navarre is leading the LIFE-IP NAdapta-CC project, within the framework of the LIFE Community Programme, as an integrated climate action project, call for 2016, which is integrated into KLINA. The Government of Navarra is the coordinator together with partners: Instituto Navarro de Tecnologías e Infraestructuras Agroalimentarias, S.A. (INTIA); Gestión Ambiental de Navarra, S.A. (GAN); Navarra de Suelo y Vivienda, S.A. (NASUVINSA); Navarra de Infraestructuras Locales, S.A. (NILSA); Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNA). The period of action is from October 2017 to December 2025. This guarantees its integration with the HCCN Road Map.

The objective of LIFE NAdapta is to increase the capacity of adaptation of Navarra to climate change through intersectoriality, long-term sustainability, participation and networking. This project aims to integrate the different sectoral policies, so that the fight against CC is incorporated into their programming and development. It is therefore a regional project, which enables progress to be made in the different sectors in a coordinated manner.

Actions:

MONITORING CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE LOCAL ENVIRONMENT

• Scorecard of indicators for monitoring the effects of Climate Change in Navarra.
• To promote the application of sustainability criteria in local entities, through the promotion of the Mayors' Pacts for Climate and Energy

ADAPTATION MEASURES IN FIVE SECTORS:

Water:

• Equip wastewater treatment plants in the face of environmental emergencies and promote sustainable urban drainage systems.
• Reduce the impact of floods through an early warning system, municipal self-protection plans and river restoration.
• Assess the availability of water resources to improve demand management.

Forests:

• Identification of the most vulnerable forests.
• Selection and conservation of seeds of the best adapted native species.
• Inclusion of adaptive management measures in forest management plans.

Agriculture and livestock:

• Improving the adaptability of agrosystems with innovative strategies for the management of soil, plant material and water for irrigation.
• Establish warning systems for emerging pests and diseases.
• Minimize the risk of fire with silvopastoral management.

Health:

• Information systems and registration of the consequences of Climate Change on health: extreme weather events, air quality, emerging risks and harmful vectors to health (tiger mosquito, ticks...).
• Inclusion of preventive actions in the Navarra Occupational Health Plan.
• Information dissemination systems and adaptation measures.

 Infrastructures and territorial planning:

• Integrate Climate Change into landscape management and territorial planning tools.
• Management platform to adapt public buildings to Climate Change.
• Energy regeneration and adaptation projects in urban and rural environments and analysis of the vulnerability of key transport infrastructures.